Litigation Support Services

Anyone who has watched TV courtroom dramas has probably seen a character providing litigation support to an attorney. The shadowy private detective that a lawyer dispatches to find the one piece of evidence that will destroy the other side is a fictional example of litigation support. Litigation support is more broadly and realistically defined as any professional assistance given to lawyers by non-lawyers. A forensic accountant, for example, would perform investigative accounting, audits, and tax determinations. Litigation support can also come in the form of testimony by an expert witness, like a physician or scientist. A real estate appraiser might tell an attorney in a divorce proceeding or lawsuit how much a piece of property is worth.

The facts and nature of the case and the needs of the attorney determine what types of litigation support are called for. Litigation support services may range factual research and documentation, research of relevant legal precedents. When a case has been tried, support may come if the form of assistance in the determination of damages.

The professionals who provide these services are consultants who may be directly employed by a law firm or who are independents contracted for specific cases. Some may work for firms that specialize in providing litigation support services.

The specific support services consultants provide vary from one stage of the litigation process to another. Discovery and motion, deposition, trial, judgment and settlement phases may each require a different set of litigation support services. At different stages of litigation consultants may offer services like:

• early case assessment
• data collection and forensics
• document processing
• online data hosting
• attorney document review
• document production
• testimony and affidavits

Information technology is impacting litigation support (along with all other areas of human activity). Often discovery involves the examination of electronic communication, such as emails, instant messages or posts to websites. Electronic information may appear to be lost. Perhaps one party in a lawsuit has deleted email messages. Sometimes, a digital forensics analyst can recapture apparently lost evidence.

Then an attorney might declare such recovered information to be relevant to a case and place it on legal hold. A litigation support consultant can then use digital forensic procedures to extract evidence from the captured data.

Litigation support has long been a critical element in the legal system. Litigation support consultants offer a wide range of services, and the list is growing longer and more complex as information technology evolves.